Efficient exploitation of network resources in a dynamic heterogeneous environment requires a capable and configurable communications system. COBS will gain performance improvements in distributed environments by customizing communications to match the requirements of the application. This configuration can take many forms, such as the selective relaxation of such things as ordering and reliable delivery protocols or the use of compression protocols appropriate to the type of data transmitted (image, audio, video). In order to allow separate and concurrent development of the OTL and the communications infrastructure we have formalized the interfaces between these layers of COBS.
Based on this interface, several communication protocols will be utilized for COBS communications, including a real-time protocol offering guarantees for quality of service, a zero copy ATM protocol offering very high performance communications across homogeneous machines, and a configurable communication protocol permitting the on-line reconfiguration and adaptation of selected protocol processing. Conventional protocols will be used as well.
In the last quarter we have ported the zero copy ATM protocol to a new version of the FORE ATM cards. We are currently extending the protocol to provide a more general infrastructure for communication-application synchronization.